Dangerous game among kids
a concern
By STEPHANIE HOOPS
Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

December 20, 2005
Tuesday

VENTURA, Calif. - A choking game that used to be a social event
and recently has become a solitary pursuit for young people has
led to the deaths this year of four California teens, prompting
Camarillo officials to take action.

"I have firsthand knowledge
that it's happening in Camarillo," said Kara Partridge,
chief information officer for the Camarillo Health Care District
and a member of a newly formed committee that is dealing with
the choking-game problem.

A Camarillo teen knew exactly
what the choking game was when Partridge asked her about it.

"Her exact words to me
when I asked her about the choking game were: 'Oh yeah, we do
that. We know how to do that. That's so cool.' "

The choking game - also known
as the "fainting game," "passing-out game,"
"funky chicken" and "space monkey" - involves
putting pressure on the chest or neck to cut off the oxygen to
the brain. It causes a rush but also can cause sudden death,
brain damage and injuries from falls when a player passes out.

Playing the choking game at
preteen social events is nothing new. Ask 40-year-old adults
if they remember it and many do.

Partridge, 41, played it.

"You would simply hyperventilate
and get a rush," she said.

Julie Rosenbluth of the American
Council for Drug Education said teens have put a new twist on
the game, and are taking it home after socializing.

"This is the first I've
heard about it," said Simi Police spokesman Sgt. Dave Livingstone.
"We'd probably contact Camarillo if we start having similar
reports."

When the October death of a
14-year-old Tarzana girl, Sasha Sepasi, hit the news, Lewis decided
to get proactive and organized a committee. Recently the group
- which consists of Partridge and Lewis; Thomas Dase, superintendent
of the Pleasant Valley School District; and Ron Fisher, assistant
principal at Camarillo High School - had its first meeting.

"We are drafting an information
piece," Lewis said.

Sepasi was a student at the
private Viewpoint School in Calabasas where she was an honor
student, athlete and artist. She died in her walk-in closet with
a belt around her neck.

Sasha was, by all accounts,
emotionally healthy and well-adjusted, just the type of teenager
experts say is likely to play the choking game.

"They're good kids,"
Rosenbluth said. "They're close to their parents, have good
relationships and are doing it because it's a drug-free high.
It feels good. It doesn't carry the same stigma as drug abuse,
and they have been taught that drugs are bad."

The most frequently observed
players are from 9 to 14 years old.

"The speculation is that
before they're out with the freedom to do more things and with
access to alcohol and marijuana, they're using something they
can control and don't have to procure," Lewis said.

It's natural for children to
want to get high, Rosenbluth said, but parents need to talk to
them about safe ways of doing it.

"There are other ways
to get that rush," she said. "Extreme sports, giving
a speech, trying out for a play. These are all the same kinds
of things that can give you that good feeling."

Partridge said adults need
to impress upon kids that their efforts to get a head rush have
gone too far.

"I don't know if educating
the children would work as well as educating the parents so they
know what happens at sleepovers and stuff," she said.

It is unclear whether the choking
game has entered the media because kids have just begun dying
from playing it alone or that medical examiners are beginning
to identify it.

"Coroners offices call
these suicides, and it's not right," said Kamelia Sepasi,
the mother of the Tarzana girl who died.

Dr. Thomas Andrew, New Hampshire's
chief medical examiner, has been speaking around the country
at seminars put on by the National Association of Medical Examiners
about coroners being slow to recognize the phenomenon.

Ventura County Chief Medical
Examiner Dr. Ronald O'Halloran said he did not attend a recent
Los Angeles conference of medical examiners addressing that issue.
He added that no deaths attributed to asphyxiant games have occurred
in the county during the 20 years he's been with the office.

Contact Stephanie Hoops
of the Ventura County Star in California at www.venturacountystar.com